Pictures: Oil "Devastated" Major Gulf Nesting Site

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Pictures: Oil "Devastated" Major Gulf Nesting Site

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Oil Spill "Devastation"

A brown pelican on Raccoon Island, Louisiana, extends wings coated with oil in a picture taken last week by researchers with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. According to the team, what they saw on the island this month represents the worst damage yet to a major bird colony due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Raccoon Island is a barrier island that's home to the largest shorebird nesting colonies in Louisiana. During a June trip, the Cornell team reported that the region seemed unaffected by oil from the Gulf spill, which began with the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig in late April.

But during a return trip in mid-July, the team encountered "devastation"—almost all the juvenile brown pelicans previously observed had been oiled to some degree, with roughly 10 percent "badly oiled," according to a Cornell-issued press release.

Oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill covers the breast of a royal tern chick recently hatched on Raccoon Island in a picture taken last week. Royal terns leave their nests within a day of hatching, which means the young birds may quickly encounter oil that's been washed ashore.

Part of Louisiana's Terrebonne Parish, the island is a protected sanctuary for breeding seabirds, including royal terns, sandwich terns, and brown pelicans.

Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at the Cornell bird lab, told the Associated Press that the Gulf oil spill is "more insidious" than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, "because it is literally happening in waves, and it's happening over and over again as the birds are moving around."

The Cornell team found that a main boom around the island had been destroyed in places and washed ashore, while in other places the boom showed signs that oil had splashed over, lead biologist and multimedia producer Mark Dantzker said in a press release.

Oiled brown pelicans stand close to the water on Raccoon Island in a picture taken by the Cornell team. The brown pelican—the state bird of Louisiana—was removed from the U.S. endangered species list only in late 2009.

Biologist Dantzker said in a press release that the Gulf oil spill's impact on the island's massive bird colonies is by far the worst he has seen in the Gulf region to date.

Photograph courtesy Gerrit Vyn, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Stained Sandwich Tern

Oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill stains a sandwich tern on Raccoon Island. Roughly 40 percent of the island's juvenile terns were visibly oiled as of mid-July, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Alerted to the damage by local biologists, the Cornell team visited the island July 11 and 12. The researchers found oil on rocks and beaches, which had been oil free during the team's last visit to the bird sanctuary June 18.

"This is a major oiling event of an incredibly important seabird colony," Cornell's Dantzker told the Associated Press. "Many of these birds will be dead soon—weeks and months. These blotches [of oil] are deadly."